Healing the Wounds of Trauma

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Healing the Wounds of Trauma
A training manual for counselors aiming to help victims of trauma around the world.

Published by the American Bible Society • About the Book

Ian Dale Art & Design | www.iandale.net

Illustrating the cover for this book raised a number of almost paradoxical questions.

"Healing the Wounds of Trauma" is a training resource that prepares counselors to care for people who have suffered horrific events. The book will be published in multiple languages for audiences on almost every continent.

We faced two key concerns:

1. How can we be true to the level of suffering this book addresses, while still having the cover give an attractive sense of hope rather than reinforcing depression?
2. How can the image on the front appeal and make sense to such a diverse audience around the world, who have differing ethnicities, fashions, and--most importantly--different ways of expressing grief?

We explored several concepts to address each of these, playing with things like silhouettes to conceal race and gender specifics, and different color schemes to emphasize hope and peacefulness. Eventually, we confirmed that some level of specificity would be helpful, but kept it to a minimum.

The illustration style allows the skin color to be left unfilled, allowing for multiple races to identify with the figures. And the posing of the two figures combines elements of both extremes of grief--the more visible and forceful expressions of the southern hemisphere and the more somber and contained expressions of the northern hemisphere.

The black and white interior illustrations were intended to portray the full range of audiences around the world.

The book would be reprinted in various developing nations around the world, so the illustration style needed to be high contrast so that it could print clearly under unpredictable conditions.

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